Ubuntu: What They're Doing Right and Wrong

Datamation take a moment to highlight the things Ubuntu is doing well and also mention some issues that could use improvement

One of great things about the Ubuntu desktop is its hardware compatibility. For example, it does Wi-Fi surprisingly well these days. While I may still grumble about its reliance on the ndiswrapper with select chipsets, overall I've been pleased with how well Ubuntu 12.10 now handles natively supported Wi-Fi dongles. In previous versions of Ubuntu, we often had to blacklist one driver to compile another, especially with select Ralink chipsets. Thankfully, this kind of compatibility issue is not a problem any longer.

Additional successes include fantastic support for just about anything that connects via USB: webcams, printers/scanners, external storage devices, MTP-based MP3 players, plus countless other devices. You really don't realize just how great Ubuntu peripheral support truly is until you connect a wireless mouse to Windows 7 and then wait for it to be detected, then search for drivers and eventually see it activated. It's rather disgusting when you stop to think about it. Since I don't use Windows 8, I can't speak to how USB devices work with that release. What I do know is that USB devices—old, new, and nearly everything in between—work great under Ubuntu.